RPG Rules and Guidelines

[Ryder]

Christ Centered Forums RPG Rules and guidelines:

All the forum rules still apply in the RPG forums so please be mindful, they can be read here,

http://www.christcenteredforums.net/forum/rules.php

Because RPGs involve an IC, In Character, component, staff will use discretion on how the rules apply to IC content. Flaming other users is against the rules of course, but its application to characters interacting with other characters will be a bit more flexible. If it is deemed by staff that someone is using a character to flame and harass a user covertly, staff will take the appropriate actions to put a stop to it. Similarly, characters need not all be Christians, but if they are deemed to be a deliberate mouthpiece for unChristian views the character's owner, aka the user posting, will be dealt with under rule 3. Please use common sense, aka uncommon sense, when writing IC.

God modding is not welcome here. A common form of god modding would be writing outcomes and/or responses for other players. Most typically seen in combat type situations, a few examples of this would be,

Poster Bob: Shiek sees Link through the underbrush, she hopes he hasn't noticed her yet.

Poster IndubidaBilly!: Link's heightened senses detect Shiek immediately. Link smirks before leaping through the air and landing behind her, Shiek tries to block with her katar, but Link slams her to the ground with the master sword, knocking her unconscious.

Besides being really short, what IndubidaBilly did in bad form was to,

A: Declare what happened with finality, instead of just what he intended to try, or more accurately what his character was intending to try.

B: Wrote the other character's responses.

This would have been better,

Poster Bob: Shiek sees Link through the underbrush, she hopes he hasn't noticed her yet.

Poster IndubidaBilly!: Link's heightened senses pick up a whiff of something in the brush. Acting on instinct only, Link attempts to quickly flank the mysterious presence. He holds his sword tightly in hand, he will strike first, and think later.

Poster Bob: Shiek is caught off guard by Link's quick maneuver, she puts up her katar just in time to glance off Link's sword, but she is knocked backward into a thorn bush. "Ouch! ... Link, what are you doing?!"

Note here that IndubidaBilly sets out what his character intends to do, in this case with two steps (Tries to flank, will try to strike), but he leaves the outcome pertaining to the other character TO THE OTHER POSTER. Bob decides what the result is, in this case that the flank sorta worked and that Link got a strike off that put Shiek on her behind, but still conscious. Bob could have had his character attempt something combat oriented in return, but he opted to just open dialogue. Note that he doesn't type what Link says back, that's for IndubidaBilly to do... See how this works?

So basically, posters control what happens to their characters, not others. By and large anyways, (Yeah I know, headache time!) GM run games would be another acceptable way of resolving conflicts, whereby a Game Master (or whatever you want to call it) takes the desired actions of multiple characters and posts the overall outcome. GMs must make it obvious to players joining a game world that it is a GM run world and make clear if they intend to resolve conflicts and such. Don't walk into a thread in progress and make yourself a GM for goodness sakes.

Another bad form of god modding would be, for lack of a better description, endless dodging. This would be where two or more players have several posts with intended actions, say combat attacks for example, nobody declares what happens to another persons' character, but everybody writes how their character avoids all attacks and throws some more attacks the other way. Lots of posts where nobody is man enough, or woman enough , to take a dive for the sake of resolving anything just tells us they're all in bad form, among other things...

Q: If only the other person decides what 'works', or whatever, then how does one win?

A: The point of RPGs is to tell a story, either a loose story (like without a GM) or a more structured story (where a GM guides the action to further the story). You don't play to 'win' exactly. Go play an MMORPG or an FPS if this question keeps bugging you.

Using lame story mechanics to undue undesirable past events is in bad form (past events not caused by equally lame god modding of course).

Having your character do things not in keeping with their character, or the game world you're in, is in bad form. Like your character is an auto mechanic in a Left Behind style game world, a special forces operative with a gun wants to arrest you in open ground from two meters away, but your character runs, dodges bullets, and otherwise behaves like he is really Neo from the Matrix and not an auto mechanic in a Left Behind game world.

Characters you RP should have a thread in the "Characters" subforum where they are described/detailed appropriately. In GM run game worlds, GMs will tell you what they want for that. A link to that thread should be posted in all your IC posts. No images that break forum rules please!

Barring conflict with the sites rules, GMs may add additional rules to their game worlds as they see fit, and may reject candidates for play at will. PM a GM and figure out what's involved in joining their game, if anything, before posting please.

Give good grace time for others to respond when applicable, play in another game world in the meantime or something.

GMs should be especially active.

Romance and violence, for the record, are allowed. Be advised though, keep it tasteful. No descriptions of sex or intense gore!

Try to keep OOC, Out Of Character, chat to the "OOC" subforum. This isn't a strict rule, when you have to talk OOC elsewhere though, please make it obvious that you are OCC.

Please use good spelling and grammar.

Watch the language, even IC!

Hopefully all conflicts amongst players can be resolved amongst themselves, but as a last resort you may contact mods to intervene. GMs feel free to ask us for any thread management help, but be patient please.